Sansui BA5000 Monoblock Amplifiers (Super scarce!!)

Description

• Why so much ? Because it impossible to find two monoblocks.

• Why so low ? The condition is not great.

• They both work 100%. Immense power!

• The ULTIMATE solid state Sansui amp for the collector!

• If you spend a little time, respray panels, Put Thick wood sides on… SHOWPIECE.

• Prices $3500-5500 each overseas, will also go to eBay

READ THIS – AMAZING – I have serious sellers regret!!

https://liquidaudio.com.au/sansui-ba-5000-amplifier-repair-review/

The BA-5000 is arguably Sansui’s best-ever power amplifier, certainly one of their best. There is hardly any argument from sensible, informed folks that this 50kg monolith puts many or even most other serious attempts to shame. It’s fair to state that this is one of the greatest power amplifiers, from the golden age, engineered and made in Japan, with love and few compromises. It compares favourably with anything you might consider from this era and of course, kills a lot of wannabe ‘high-end’ boutique and plastic gear you can buy now.

In my opinion, the BA-5000 puts most other Sansui offerings in the shade, including the legendary AU-X1, AU-X11, BA-F1 and later amplifiers from beyond Sansui’s peak. We can test this theory by asking Rob about it, seeing as he owns examples of all these pieces, and we will. It also casts shade on most other amplifiers, period!

“Mike, what about the legendary Sansui B-2301?” I’m familiar with this model, it’s very good, though not as heavy at a ‘mere’ 37kg (still Mr Universe mass by modern standards). It sounds great, but so does this and this has less plastic and moving coil meters that can be repaired. Either way, once you’ve heard a big, discrete power amplifier like the BA-5000, you can’t go back. The scale and drama a piece like this delivers, sonically and aesthetically, are in another league.

Rob’s a great customer for several reasons, but one that always makes me laugh is that he has that curious hi-fi-related excitement about gear like this that only people like you, me, and Rob can understand. I know you guys are as excited to read about this amplifier as I was to work on it and write this up and it’s the same for her owner. Rob’s reaction after he plugged the BA-5000 in again for the first time and his call to me where he told me about it are partly why I do this work – it’s for people like you, and Rob!

You can read Rob’s full thoughts in the comments section of this article.

Five grand would also buy you any of a dozen or more other great vintage hi-fi amplifiers like an Accuphase P-500L from the late ’80s or a beautiful Accuphase P-360 from the early ’90s. It would also buy an incredible Krell KSA-100S or Krell KSA-150 for example and many other great amplifiers. These are all better built, but all fall short of the massive 300 Watts into any impedance spec the BA-5000 claims, if only fractionally in the case of the P-500L.

Something more modern we could compare the BA-5000 to is the Yamaha M-5000 power amplifier, a serious attempt by Yamaha to build things more like they used to. The M-5000 is a decent amplifier, and it costs $13,000 AUD. The M-5000 is 100 Watts per channel and 26kg though and I’m sorry, but this attempt ain’t cutting it. That is nowhere near the Sansui BA-5000, but yes, it looks pretty.

A better comparison would be with an Accuphase power amplifier and something that truly is better in every way is the Accuphase P-7500. The P-7500 is a 300 Watt-per-channel, conservatively rated beast, weighing in 49kg. The P-7500 also costs nearly $35,000 AUD. This is a proper modern power amplifier, Hegel, Luxman etc can only dream about being designed and built like this. None of these amplifiers have output transformers like this amazing Sansui BA-5000 though.

Perhaps the ultimate comparison would be with another transformer-coupled solid-state power amplifier, of which there are very few, mostly made by McIntosh Labs. Consider the McIntosh MC312 power amplifier, a 300 Watt-per-channel beast. It weighs 48kg and, on paper, has a very similar spec to the Sansui BA-5000. The McIntosh MC312 costs $17,000 AUD and is a serious piece of gear.

I listen to every single thing I work on, and always through my workshop Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors, so I know how things sound and always know when something sounds noticeably better, or worse than usual, or than I’m expecting. All my comments are based on first-hand experience and scientific assessment. Many amplifiers I listen to sound ordinary, but the Sansui BA-5000 is one of the other amplifiers, the better kind that is!

This beauty has air, oomph, delicacy and an immediately obvious wow factor that only really good amplifiers have. The epic scale of things is evident even through smaller speakers like the NS-10Ms, a sign of how well they do their job. The smoothness of the Sansui BA-5000 was immediately apparent though, as was the inky blackness of the background, absolute silence replacing the irritating rushing sound she presented with initially.

From whatever angle you approach describing this amplifier, there is no way around having to use superlatives. Wether it is the weight of no less than 49 Kg’s, the 2 x 300 Watt power at any load impedance, the magnificent construction, the sound, detailed yet impactful. A true masterpiece, both to behold as well as to listen to.

The new KEMET 33000 uF main power supply capacitors were slightly bigger than the original ones, so they had to be ‘shoehorned’ in… The circular clamps holding the capacitors in place are screwed into the side panels with three M4 bolts, but as a consequence of the slightly greater diameter of the new capacitors, the clamps had to be ‘stretched out’ a bit and extra holes had to be drilled into the side panels to make it all fit properly.

As far as I know the BA5000 is the only Sansui power amplifier to have four push-pull pairs of power transistors per channel. The fifth pair fitted drives the other four. Of course, all Sanken ring-emitter types…

One of the updated driver boards; I use Panasonic FC or comparable high quality electrolytic capacitors to replace the original Elna’s.

Meter illumination boards and covers all cleaned, removed fittings of the original lightbulbs, ready for the new LED’s, six per meter, two LED’s replacing each original lightbulb.

The front panel conveniently ‘folds out’ for access to the input buffer amp board, meter amplifiers and illumination boards.